Gossip Central

The Real Beale at Grey Gardens

You thought you knew everything about the Edie Beales, mother and daughter—from the Maysles' documentary, the off Broadway and Broadway musicals starring Christine Ebersole, Walter Newkirk's book Memorabealia, and the news that an HBO feature starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore is in the works. Now the dynamic mother/daughter occupants of the historic East Hampton beach manse will star again in a coffee table book.

As fans know, Grey Gardens housed the famously down on their wealth women, as well as cats and debris, but

what debris! At last night's annual "Art for Animals" benefit, Eva Marie Beale told me about the new book she assembled using younger Edie's poetry, photos, drawings, and letters, with an introduction by Peter Beard: Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures  (Verlhac Editions). Pointing out a handsome tome on Edie's kin, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the same series, Beale said that Frances Hayward, resident of Grey Gardens and the evening's host was inspiration, setting Eva on this course. As she went through the vast amount of material left behind for her husband Bouvier Beale Jr., Edie's nephew, she knew she wanted to ensure Edie's legacy as a beautiful, gifted woman who, with her mother, became a shut-in. Beth Ostrosky was among those braving the monsoon rains in support of the Humane Society. Off to the city for work, fiancé Howard Stern had left the honey-toned blond home alone, with security of course. The couple is now weighing the options offered by the glossies, OK!, People among them, for the rights to cover the much anticipated wedding this October—and they do not want mentioned which tabloid is bidding embarrassingly low. Meantime, there were worse problems at hand. Russell Simmons and Wayne Pacelle, president of HSUS, spoke about cruelty to animals, their tight caged existence as they are bred to feed us. "We can do better," they concluded after recounting blood chilling stories. Tony Ingrao joined other guests supping on delicious—really!—appropriately vegan fare: lentils with cauliflower, grilled vegetables, heirloom tomatoes, and foccaccia with olive tapenade.
       Fueled by the sugar rush of pink glazed cupcakes, pink cocktails, and pink twizzlers from an earlier celebration of Betsey Johnson's new eyeglass line at Grueneyes in East Hampton, I did not miss the meat

While Johnson vamped with well wishers, John Gruen told me he invented a silicone washer to hinge his signature frames. Whatever the patent he gets, he said ruefully, the Chinese are sure to copy.

Regina Weinreich 

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Dark Knight of the Soul

It comes as no surprise that the new Batman movie took in record ticket sales for its opening weekend. The accolades for Heath Ledger's bittersweet performance as The Joker are well deserved: the rolling of the eye, the licking of the lips all contribute to the creepy look and feel of this character, especially wonderful sporting a strawberry blond flip. Some people just want to see the world blow up around them, says Michael Caine playing Bruce Wayne's homme d'affaires preparing him for the illogic of his enemy's motivation as menace to Gotham. The Joker in drag runs from a hospital, exploding in syncopation, Ledger a fashion risk in nurse garb with tell tale blacksocks and shoes. The Dark Knight is filled with nods to Hitchcock and, ironically, despite a level of incoherence, tells a good story. The Batman franchise has a

noteworthy history of evoking psychological nuance: memorable is Danny de Vito's Penguin; let's just say the various back stories The Joker offers all involve razors to one's face and unforgiving family: Love Gone Wrong. He is not alone. The Joker expresses his kinship with Batman: "We're both freaks." Christian Bale's Batman is appropriately bland by comparison to his cartoon foe; even when escorting three gorgeous blonds into a room he seems stiff. He's not having fun. The guy with the desired girl is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, a politician who becomes Two Face. One side was burnt off thanks to one of The Joker's pranks exposing bared gums and incisors, dislodged eyeballs, a Picasso-esque orgy of disfigurement. Handsome Eckhart appeared on The Today Show with co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal to talk about Ledger's final performance, how happy he was to play this role. Eckhart told a story of the cast competing to download Ledger's ipod that brought to mind a concert at the Beacon Theater to celebrate Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan experimental bio pic in which Ledger plays one sixth of the rock legend. He M.C.'d for part of the excellent night, breaking from his laconic image to introduce musician friends. Some critics seem relieved to find Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes in the character of Rachel. Unfortunately Gyllenhaal's Rachel doesn't have much to do except stand up to the Joker's antics and savor long and hard kissing with both Bale and Eckhart.

Not bad at all.
       And Two Face is not the only transformation in town. Check out New York Times culture reporter David Carr's tell-all cover story in The NYTimes Magazine this week. Who knew this droll and witty writer had such a drug feuled, sordid past? I can't wait to see the book.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

The Dark Knight (trailer)

Mamma Mia!

“If you don't like spandex and platform boots, you can leave quietly now,” announced producer Judy Craymer at the Mamma Mia! premiere at the Southampton Cinema Sunday night, before introducing “the most kissable” star Pierce Brosnan who said of making this dizzying, Dionysian spectacle, and showcase for those addictive Abba tunes: “We had the time of our lives.” Fans of the long running Broadway musical and skeptics alike will find much to love in this fairy tale of female bonding: postcard perfect Greece, the irresistible performance of Meryl Streep as Donna, an American raising a daughter (Amanda Seyfried) on a tiny mountainous island where she runs a rundown bed and breakfast. On the eve of marriage to Sky (Dominic Cooper), Sophia secretly invites three men she suspects of being her dad, on the basis of mom's 20 year old diary, to escort her down the aisle: Brosnan and fellow cocksmen Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard. Donna imports her gal pals (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters), back up singers from their defunct rock group Donna and the Dynamos, and part of the merriment in this celebration of spirited women is reviving their old act in full regalia thanks to the superb work of costume veteran Ann Roth. The movie is a chain of joyful, jaw-dropping song and dance numbers: a Greek chorus of villagers that pop up at random to accompany Streep singing rooftop, a bachelor party cum flipper dance; Walters's valiant turn on “Take a Chance on Me” ensures that no one goes uncoupled; and, a rousing rendition of “Dancing Queen,” has you gasping, what was that bulbous thing between your ample long legs, Christine? Mamma Mia! Yes, Craymer told me at the lavish after party at the Parrish Art Museum honoring Evelyn Lauder's Breast Cancer Research Foundation sponsored by Pink Blackberry Curve, Bloomberg, and Conde Nast Portfolio, despite that bawdy British humor, they got a PG-13 rating! Christine Baranski was flown into East Hampton's airport by helicopter after the matinee performance of “Boeing! Boeing!” for the party, and this being the Hamptons, the limo transporting her through the towns on Sunday night hit so much traffic, she may as well have taken the Jitney from the city. Nevertheless she joined the happy crowd: I saw Barbara Walters at the screening, and spotted many guys (lest you think this was strictly a girls' night out): Marty Richards, Ted Hartley, Terry George, David Margolick, Steven Gaines, Bob Balaban, Bob Colacello, among those boogying and cheerfully chowing down on moussaka, stuffed grape leaves and grilled lamb-and Pierce Brosnan who played the elegant but stiff 007 and these over-the-top comedic roles with such finesse. Which does he prefer? “You only go once, Baby,” he said three times with a wink. “I love it all.”

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Momma Mia! (trailer)

Hellboy 2

You may not find lobster your ideal complexion hue for an action hero. Hellboy, nicknamed Red (Ron Perlman) is not Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman. Nevertheless with his Kojak-style appeal and quick wit, thanks to the clever imagination of writer/director Guillermo del Toro, he has charm galore. Del Toro is, of course, the creative mind behind the 2006 Oscar nominated Pan's Labyrinth, a film that was so astonishingly original that everyone waited to see what del Toro would dream up next. Hellboy, based on the comics by Mike Mignola, is a more formulaic work with a twist: this epic savior as a  young boy watches Howdy Dowdy, pondering the nature of existence as if he were an ordinary earthling instead of a demon, and faithfully squelches evildoers despite an ungrateful public. On Sunday night, at a post-screening dinner in East Hampton's Cittanuova, Chuck Scarborough, Tracy Feith, Joe Pintauro, among many others, dined and delighted in the director's work. Del Toro's drawings for the movie's spectacular creatures: elves, goblins, giant beanstalks, and the apish Mr. Wink were featured in Sunday's New York Times. Clearly, he is the right man for "The Hobbit." And, check out the incendiary Selma Blair!

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Hellboy 2 (trailer)

Celebrating Gonzo

When Alex Gibney was cutting his documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side,” the Academy Award winning investigation of the grim business of a simple Iraqi man tortured to death in Bagram Prison in Afganistan, he would go into the next room to work on his documentary on Hunter S. Thompson for comic relief. Now that film is about to open, appropriately for the 4th of July. Thompson, originator of gonzo journalism, investigated “the American Dream,” embedded himself with the Hell's Angels, reported on American politics for “Rolling Stone,” and wrote one of the funniest books in the language, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Gibney's prismatic biopic (a high just watching), narrated by Johnny Depp and featuring interviews with Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, a diverse who's who in contemporary American culture, reveals Thompson's development as a writer (he obsessively typed out “The Great Gatsy”) as well as the consuming fame that may have contributed to his suicide. Even talking about Hunter brings a tear to editor Jann Wenner's eyes, halting his tribute. Wenner as well as the film's producer Graydon Carter and a duly eclectic group including Meg Ryan, Arianna Huffington, Tom Wolfe, Gail Sheehy, Gay Talese, Lynn Nesbit, Dominic Dunne, Jimmy Buffett, etc. crowded into the hip Waverly Inn for a pre-screening party last week. Graphic designer George Lois who recently had a show of his classic Esquire covers at MoMA pointed out the Waverly Inn's mural, painted by New Yorker Magazine illustrator Edward Sorel: who could be Narcissus? asked Lois, reflecting on the literary/mythological conceit of the painting adorning the restaurant's walls. Norman Mailer is stretched out looking at his reflection in a pond. Near him, Jack Kerouac, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth works a surreal typewriter as Bob Dylan hovers above. Presidential historian and close Thompson ally Douglas Brinkley introduced me to Juan, the writer's son. “Gonzo,” for all its bravado, is also a warmly felt family portrait thanks to Juan and his mother, Thompson's first wife. Then William Kennedy and family piled into Sean MacPherson's jeep for a short trip to the Angelica theater for the screening. Brian Williams, the NBC newsman who sat in for the deceased Tim Russert on last Sunday's Meet the Press modestly explained the secret of a great talk show: get Joe Biden. And then he noted how great it is that Tom Brokaw volunteered to take on the awesome election season, calling from a cell phone, from a spot on his Montana ranch that's not a dead zone, to say he's in.
                  And speaking of dedication in media, Clay Felker, famed New York Magazine editor, has just died. You could say that gonzo is a branch of the New Journalism, the use of novelistic techniques in the reporting of news, much championed by Felker.

Regina Weinreich 

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Gonzo (trailer)

Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo may have made his living as a screenwriter and novelist, but as a play and a new must-see documentary film make clear, Dalton Trumbo excelled at the dying literary art of letter writing as his Hollywood career was stifled during the McCarthy 'fifties. Comprised of nine A-list actors reading from his witty and searing letters-Joan Allen, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Brian Dennehy, Liam Neeson, Donald Sutherland, Josh Lucas among them--the film “Trumbo” takes us back to the era of blacklisting, when writers were hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to define their communist affiliation and name names. Defying them, Trumbo spent 11 months in jail. Adapted by his son Christopher from his 2003 Off Broadway play and directed by Peter Askin, “Trumbo” features performances of his words, archival interviews and resonant clips from his movies “Papillon,” “Spartacus,” “Exodus,” and “Johnny Got his Gun” all focused on characters showing integrity, all standing up for what is right in times of crisis. Trumbo's language stars, as does the true meaning of patriotism especially now when some invoke The Patriot Act to muzzle democratic discourse, when loyalties are so rigidly questioned as to violate our First Amendment. See The DixieChicks. Nathan Lane does a superb and hilarious rendition of Trumbo's riff on “servicing himself” using every euphemism in his ample arsenal. And David Strathairn who so brilliantly brought Edward R. Murrow to life in George Clooney's “Good Night and Good Luck,” reads Trumbo's letter of outrage addressed to his daughter Mitzi's teacher as the child was ostracized at school when her father's history became playground news. The toll on family for resisting fear and cowardice is a large part of the story of Trumbo and the Hollywood Ten whose lives and careers were disrupted by this "witch hunt." See Arthur Miller, "The Crucible." The footage of HUAC is an embarrassing reminder of what Trumbo called "a time of evil."

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura